Return of the Pancakes
by Kaylakit
Summary: Sabrina's teenage daughter Melinda, a witch new to her powers, discovers for herself why members of the Spellman family can't eat pancakes.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Melinda entered the kitchen. "What should I have for breakfast?" she asked Salem. Melinda was Sabrina's daughter, 16 years of age. Sabrina and Harvey had married and been happy for a while, but had recently divorced after it became apparent that Harvey couldn't look at his daughter until she completed her magical training. Just after the divorce, Sabrina had discovered that she was pregnant again. So Melinda was understandably upset.

Salem looked at her from his position on the kitchen table. "Waffles?" he suggested.

"I'm tired of waffles. We have them every day." She paused. "How about pancakes?"

"Not pancakes," Salem said, watching her. "Never pancakes. Not in this house."

"Why not?" Melinda pointed at the table and two plates of pancakes appeared. "I can zap something else for you if you don't like them." She sat down to eat.

Sabrina entered the room, moving slowly and heavily. She was now around seven months pregnant with triplets, and so fairly big. "No!" She pointed at Melinda and the fork went flying across the room, propelled by a burst of magic. "You can never, ever eat pancakes."

Melinda glanced at her mother, wondering if the strain of the divorce and pregnancy had finally made her snap. "That's the same thing the cat said. What's wrong with eating pancakes?"

"You might not be a Spellman in name, but you're still one by blood. So you can never eat pancakes. You'll become addicted after the first bite. It happened to me when I was training to be a witch and I had to be locked in my room until the cravings stopped. I don't want it happening to you." Sabrina's expression changed. Now she looked faintly green and nauseous. Sabrina dashed out of the room as quickly as her swollen stomach would allow.

Melinda looked at Salem, and he was reminded strongly of Sabrina at her age. She certainly looked almost exactly like Sabrina had. "I think the stress of everything is getting to her," she informed him.

"It really did happen to her, you know. I was there."

"Yes, but it was probably just a personal thing." She took a few bites of the pancakes still on the table. Sabrina had been less careful than her aunts had when she was young: she had not zapped the pancakes away, nor had she cast a spell on Melinda to prevent her from conjuring more pancakes. "I'm not addicted. Have you ever heard of anyone being addicted to pancakes? It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! Now, I've got to get the bus." She grabbed her backpack and left the house.

Salem looked around for Sabrina, but she was nowhere to be found. "I really should tell her mother… nah, too much work. I'll eat instead."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Melinda arrived at school that day feeling a little odd. So she went to her locker and opened it, glancing up and down the hallway, then pointed inside her locker and zapped in some pancakes in a Styrofoam container. She started to eat right there beside her locker.

"Why am I still hungry?" she said to herself as she ate. "I already had breakfast."

Her friend Scott found her at her locker. "Bringing breakfast to school, are we?"

Melinda glanced up at Scott. He was really cute and nice. "Yeah, my mom is kind of losing her mind and I didn't want to stick around very long." She took a final bite of the pancakes in the container and examined it for any remaining bits. After she had eaten these, she threw it away.

"Most mothers are out of their minds. I've always thought mine is."

"Mine is out of her mind more than usual. I think it's because she's pregnant."

"Or because she just got divorced. That's bound to put a lot of strain on her mind."

"True."

"Did you hear about the breakfast at school tomorrow? The PTA says it's the thirtieth annual one." Indeed, the pancake breakfast had been created by Sabrina during her pancake addiction- it had raised so much money that it had been repeated every year since.

"Wow, that sounds wonderful," Melinda said with a bright smile. The bell rang. "Looks like we have to get to class." They both headed off to math class.

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"Now, Melinda, what is the answer?" asked Mrs. Quick. Mrs. Quick was decidedly older than she had been when teaching Sabrina, but was still at the school. Of Sabrina's teachers, she was the only one left. She had just put a complicated math problem up on the board. Melinda had been sitting in class, her body tense and her hands shaking. She desperately wanted, no, needed, more pancakes.

"Pancakes!" Melinda said. Some of the people near her gave her odd looks.

"Melinda, what is the answer to the math problem?"

Melinda glanced at the board. "37."

"Can you come up here and show us how you arrived at that answer?" Melinda rose and started to write, but her hands were shaking so badly that her numbers were illegible and she kept dropping the chalk. "Melinda, are you all right?" asked Mrs. Quick.

Melinda nodded. "Yes, I'm fine…" The bell rang, allowing Melinda to escape outside to her locker, where she conjured up more pancakes to satisfy her craving, devouring them in moments, and headed to her next class, realizing that she was becoming addicted.

Melinda survived the rest of the day by conjuring pancakes in her locker between classes, and in the bathroom during classes. Her clothes felt very tight at the end of the day, and she knew her stomach was getting bigger. In fact, she was starting to get round all over. She had to come up with a way to keep her mother distracted until she could solve this.

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As soon as the school day ended, Melinda rushed home. She was having more trouble moving than usual, a sign that she was starting to get into bad physical shape- which meant she was putting on weight from all those pancakes. After a quick glance around the living room ascertained that her mother had gone out, she headed upstairs.

"Salem!" she called. "Salem, help me."

Salem slid through the door and into her room. "Melinda, you're an addict! A feen! A-"

"Shut up, cat! I know, but I need a way to keep Mom distracted until I can figure out a way to get rid of it!" She started to turn the pages of the magic book.

Salem sighed. "Do you know nothing? Make what she already has worse- she's already feeling sick from her pregnancy. If that gets worse, she'll ignore you and won't look to you as the cause of it. Especially since her magic is starting to go haywire now."

Melinda looked at Salem and nodded once. "Let's see…" She rummaged through the magic book. "Here's one- to make an existing trouble worse. 'Make mother's ache worse still, make her feel a bit more ill. There, that should work. What do you mean by 'her magic's going haywire'?"

"Oh, didn't you know? Pregnant witches start giving off random jolts of magic in the last few months of pregnancy. It'll be even worse for your mother since she's half-mortal. She doesn't have as much control over her magic."

"I just hope she doesn't realize until I figure out a way to get rid of it!" She pointed at the desk and zapped in some more pancakes, then settled down to eat. "Otherwise I'm going to be in so much trouble."

"And you're gonna look like a blimp."

"What?"

"Oh, didn't I mention that? Your mother got so big she could hardly fit through the door!"

"Okay, so I can't let mom see me in the next few days… I'll just have to hope that spell works."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Meanwhile, Sabrina had gone grocery shopping. She was in the bread aisle when, unbeknownst to her, a stream of black bubbles floated through her open mouth. A moment later, a jolt of magic shot out of her finger and struck the floor, turning it polka-dot. Sabrina winced and hurriedly pointed at the floor to turn it back before returning to her grocery shopping. Another magic jolt and the eggs had turned to chicks. She quickly zapped those back as well. No sooner had she done this than an incredibly sharp pain struck her in the stomach and she wet her pants. Staggering under the weight of the pain, Sabrina fled the supermarket as quickly as her ungainly body could move. Slowly, her stomach had begun to swell. She would go visit her aunts, who had gotten an apartment in Boston together after she had married, and see if they knew what was going on. Right as she got out the supermarket door, she vomited all over herself.

_It's going to be a lovely day_, she thought, squeezing into her tiny car and driving off in the direction of Boston. _All of this is normal, except that it's so much worse than it should be…_

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Melinda rose from her desk and went to look at herself in the mirror. Already she was starting to feel as if her clothes were squeezing her out. She hadn't even had that many pancakes. And she so desperately needed more. Melinda had begun to swell out, so she pointed at herself and her clothes grew to fit her new plus size. Salem laughed.

"You're going to get much bigger than that, you know," he told her.

Melinda turned. "I know. I need more pancakes!" She sat back down at her desk and pointed at it, conjuring an extra-big stack that was around two feet high. "I've barely had any today."

"How many have you had?"

"Only a couple hundred. I need more!" She began to gobble the stack. It was gone in seconds and she zapped in another one, which also disappeared.

"Shouldn't you be looking for a cure in that magic book?"

Melinda grabbed the magic book and started to rummage through it, but not before zapping a third stack to gobble as she read. "Addictions… nothing… bad habits. To rid oneself of an unwanted bad habit, press here. May take up to three days to work fully." Melinda pressed the spot in the magic book. "Anything that might be a little faster-acting?"

"Your mother tried brewing a syrup to make her hate the taste of pancakes, but she brought it to school and someone took it."

"So I won't bring it to school. I'll just make it here and put it on a stack of zapped pancakes." She started out the door, but got stuck halfway through as her bulk wouldn't fit. "Salem, help!"

"What do you want me to do? It's not like I have any strength! Use magic."

Melinda pointed at herself, and the door widened slightly to let her pass. She started down the stairs, which were not wide enough to admit her and she got stuck again. Getting herself out would have to take a backseat, though- she needed more pancakes! So she zapped in another stack of pancakes, which she began to eat standing there wedged into the staircase. As she ate, she grew wider, and groaned as her sides hit the walls where they couldn't expand anymore. She continued eating more and more pancakes and wedged herself into the stairwell tighter and tighter.

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Meanwhile, Sabrina had arrived at her aunts' apartment building after several more magical accidents, including accidentally turning her car into a pigeon, only to find that the elevator was broken. She began climbing the stairs to the 200th floor, where her aunts lived, pausing to rest every few flights of stairs. The climb made her dizzy, and she grew shorter and shorter of breath. Two and a half hours later, when she had reached the 199th floor, another jolt of magic shot out of her finger. Unfortunately, this time it had been pointed at her, and she found herself all the way back on the bottom. With an exhausted sigh, she started to the top again.

Five hours after she had originally started climbing, Sabrina reached the top of the stairs and nearly collapsed as she rang the doorbell. Hilda answered.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"That's a very good question. My magic is totally out of control!" A jolt of magic shot out of her finger and turned the apartment's door into a tree. Hilda zapped it back.

"Well, come inside. Zelda is around here somewhere… Zellie, Sabrina's here!"

Sabrina entered the apartment and sat gratefully on a large couch. Zelda came through a doorway and sat on another couch, where Hilda joined her.

"What's happening, Sabrina?" asked Zelda.

"It's really weird… everything happening is normal, for a witch's pregnancy, except it's much worse than it's supposed to be. First my magic started more out of control, three random zaps in a few seconds, and then my stomach started to hurt, except way worse than ever before. All of it is normal- even wetting my pants, you use the bathroom more when you're pregnant. It's just not supposed to come on that badly that suddenly." She suddenly stood and started to bolt for the bathroom, but had wet her pants again before she had gone two feet. "See?"

Zelda was deep in thought. "Everything normal, only worse than normal… that sounds like a spell. A trouble amplification spell, to be specific."

"So someone put a spell on me? But who would do that?"

"It could be almost anyone. This spell is a very simple one to cast."

"Can you reverse it?"

"Oh, I can, but the reversal is harder. It will take a few days, and the spell will get worse before it gets better. The good news is that if anyone other than the caster reverses it, the amplified troubles go into the original caster, so you'll know who cast it by who starts getting sick- and I'll mix in the expanding butt spell you used on Mr. Rothwell as a punishment."

Sabrina smiled. "Okay, start!"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Melinda was well and truly stuck in the stairwell. There was no chance of her getting out by trying to suck it in, so she pointed at herself again and found herself standing beside the lab-top, where she discovered another problem: her stomach was too big for her arms to reach the table. Another spell, this one to lengthen her arms, was cast, and she looked at Salem, who sat on the table.

"What are the ingredients?" she demanded. Salem read them to her, and she added them, resulting in a puff of smoke and a small container of syrup. Melinda smiled, picked up the container, zapped in some pancakes, and poured it over them before devouring them.

"So, did it work?" asked Salem.

"I hate pancakes… but I need more! I need more pancakes!" She zapped in another huge stack and held her nose to swallow them. "It didn't work the way it was supposed to. I hate them, but I still need more!"

"Looks like you'll have to wait for that spell to kick in. And you might want to do something about all that weight before your mom comes home."

"Good point. Is there something in the magic book?"

"Maybe." Salem ran for the stairs. Melinda zapped herself back to her room and started looking through the magic book.

"Here's one. To shed unwanted pounds. I've put on a lot of pounds I hate, rid me of all this extra weight." Melinda shrank down to normal size, but Salem grew to take up half the desk.

"Oh, no, I'm a fat cat!" exclaimed Salem. "Reverse the spell!"

"Not until I find a way to do it without putting on hundreds of pounds. I need to stay thin. And there's a big pancake breakfast tomorrow at school… which means I'll get fat all over again."

"Sabrina should have been home by now. I wonder how that spell of yours is keeping her distracted?"

"Melinda, I'm home!" shouted a voice from downstairs. Sabrina had arrived. Melinda headed down the stairs to greet her mother.

"Hey, Mom, how was the shopping?"

"I went to see my aunts. How was your day?" The odor of the air fresheners hit Sabrina and her face took on a greenish tinge. She immediately fled the room. Melinda headed back upstairs to wait for the spell she had cast to rid herself of the bad habit to kick in, but suddenly felt a strong wave of nausea overcome her. She leaned against a wall, taking deep breaths, and waited for it to subside.

_That was weird_, she thought. _I wonder where that came from… maybe it's because I hate pancakes now and ate so many of them anyway?_ The thought triggered another craving, but not so bad as the last one had been. _Hey, maybe I'm getting over this…_ She zapped in another stack of pancakes and choked them down before heading up to her room to get some sleep.

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Meanwhile, in her apartment, Zelda was struck by a wave of pancake craving. "No," she said to herself. "No. I will not eat pancakes. I will not eat pancakes. It's mind over matter."

Hilda had not fared so well. Her ability to resist was not as pronounced as Zelda's, and at the wave of pancake craving that she, too, suffered, she zapped herself a stack of pancakes. With her first bite, the craving intensified, and she soon downed the entire stack.

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Sabrina had also been struck by the sudden pancake craving. _Must be part of the pregnancy…_ she thought. _Resurrecting old habits. But I can't eat pancakes, now or ever, and especially not while I'm pregnant._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Melinda woke early the next morning, for it was the day of the pancake breakfast and she had to go to it. She felt really weird, though… kind of sick to her stomach. She sat up slowly and a jolt of magic shot out of her finger to strike the canopy of her bed, bringing it crashing down onto her. She quickly zapped it back up and discovered that her stomach was starting to get round.

"Salem, is there a magical anti-nausea medication in the magic book?"

"I doubt it," Salem replied "Besides, pancake addiction shouldn't cause nausea." At the mention of pancakes, Melinda's face turned green and she bolted for the bathroom to throw up. She emerged several minutes later.

"Salem, I need something. The slightest mention of pancakes makes me feel sick… but I'm not craving them anymore."

"Well, it looks like your spell worked. As for why you feel sick… could be spell backlash."

"What do you mean?"

"From the spell you cast on your mother. If she figured out someone cast something on her and reversed it, the amplification of her troubles would go back to you."

"So I'm going to have amplified pregnancy?"

"Well, you're not actually going to be pregnant; you'll just feel like it."

"Is there a way to reverse spell backlash?"

"Nope. You'll just have to wait it out. Since the spell wasn't on your mother very long, it shouldn't be on you very long either."

"And how do I hide this from her?"

"You leave the house very fast and go to the pancake breakfast at school. By now your addiction should be gone."

"But I hate pancakes now and I'm not craving them anymore."

"Go anyway. It'll get you out of the house."

Melinda examined herself in the mirror, discovering that her butt had also started to get big. "Salem, why is my butt bigger?"

"I have no idea. There's an expanding butt spell, but I don't know why someone would put it on you."

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Meanwhile, in Hilda and Zelda's apartment, the pancake cravings were getting worse. Hilda sat the kitchen table, gobbling pancakes, when Zelda entered the room.

"Hilda! What on earth are you doing?" she asked, before doubling over and clutching at her stomach as the waves of craving struck her, even worse than last night.

"I got a craving last night," said Hilda. "A really bad one. Must have more pancakes!"

Zelda looked at her. "I got craving last night too… I didn't act on it… but I'm having it worse now… must have… no, no. I can't eat pancakes. I can't eat pancakes. Oh, my stomach…"

"Just give in to it, Zellie. They're yummy."

"No… I can't…" She sat down at the table. "I can't eat pancakes… I need pancakes…" Zelda pointed at the table, conjuring a stack of pancakes, and began to eat.

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Sabrina, too, was having trouble. "Pancakes… need pancakes… No, I will not eat pancakes. It is the pregnancy that is doing this to me. I am a pancake addict and therefore I cannot eat pancakes." She clutched at her stomach. "Pancakes…" she moaned.

Salem came down the stairs to look at Sabrina. "What's with you?"

"I've caught the pancake bug again… craving so bad… do you still have the recipe for that syrup to make me hate the taste of pancakes?"

"Well, the lab-top is still in the dining room."

Sabrina bolted for the dining room.


End file.
